Terry's Folly or Before The Baron

I watched Brazil for the first time in over a decade. It has all the positives and negatives you expect from a Terry Gilliam film.

On the plus side is the design. It alone makes the film worthwhile. Brazil is a mix of old and new architecture, and a conglomeration of tubing and ducts, with just enough exaggeration to make the world look livable but horribly unpleasant. Some people thought Gilliam was taking a page from 1984, but that's a tale about a ruthlessly efficient state--Brazil is about a ruthlessly inefficient one.

There are also some good supporting performances, including Robert De Niro, Michael Palin, Ian Holm and Bob Hoskins. Unfortunately, the lead, Jonathan Pryce, is required to look confused and then more confused. And Kim Greist as his dreamgirl is fairly unappealing.

The biggest problem, as with so many Gilliam films, is the storytelling. He seems so interested in images that he often has trouble putting them in an interesting order. Gilliam had a hand in the screenplay (as did Tom Stoppard and Charles McKeown) and it moves pretty well until Pryce finally meets Greist, and he starts acting irrationally. From then on, it just seems frantic without getting more intense.

Also, there's almost too much imagination. The film is over two hours, and could be improved by being cut about a half an hour. First, Gilliam could have removed all the fantasy sequences. I know they meant a lot to him, and do afford some great visuals, but they stop the story dead and don't really tell us anything. (The original screenplay actually had more extensive fantasy sequences. I believe they were shortened for money reasons.) And the sequence after the torture scene, though it does have some great images and a weird, surrealistic sense, goes on twice as long as it should.

Overall, I'm glad he made the film, even if it isn't completely successful. At least when Gilliam fails, it's on a high level.